Radio Free Vermont

September 1, 2017
What if they gave a secession, and everybody came? Eco-activist McKibben (The Age of Missing Information, 1992, etc.) tries his hand at fiction, to mixed results.There was a long-ago time, McKibben reminds his readers, when Vermont broke off from New York to form its own republic, which lasted for 14 years before it joined the U.S. So why not once again? It's not as if the Berners would get the bomb. Instead, the independent Vermont dreamed of by old back-to-the-land-hippie protagonist Vern Barclay is a paradise of "Vermont milk, Vermont beer, Vermont music," a place of a "free local economy, where neighbors make things for neighbors--and so they actually bother to give them some taste, body, and character." It's not just rhetoric; in a caper that opens McKibben's yarn, secessionists hijack a Coors truck, explaining to the befuddled driver that since Vermont has "more breweries per capita than any place on earth," there's no real need for industrial beer from outside. That puts the secessionists on the wrong side of the law in a scene that could have come from Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang, of which McKibben's book might just as well have been a lost sequel, suitably updated so that the insurrectionists drive Subaru Foresters, work around Asperger's syndrome, and ponder the reality of the system ("maybe Garth Brooks was real, in his own mind"). As with Abbey's book, McKibben's players are symbols as much as characters, acting out an idea. It's a fable, in other words, and it gets a little didactic at times. McKibben admits as much, writing in an author's note that the message isn't necessarily that the nation should splinter so much as that "when confronted by small men doing big and stupid things"--and we all know who he means--"we need to resist with all the creativity and wit we can muster." A timely yarn that, though a little obvious and a little clunky, makes for a provocative entertainment.

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September 11, 2017
Summoning the spirit of Edward Abbey, environmentalist and author McKibben (The End of Nature) makes his fiction debut with this rollicking tale of monkeywrenching and political activism. Proud Vermonter, local ale lover, and radio personality Vern Barclay didn’t mean to become a radical, but when the new owners of his radio station tell him he can’t be critical of big media on his show he pushes back by getting creative with his coverage of the controversial opening of a new Walmart. After things spiral out of control he’s forced to go underground, but that doesn’t stop him from continuing his clever acts of resistance, including hacking into the sound system of a Bennington Starbucks to broadcast a Radio Free Vermont podcast touting the value of buying local. The podcast’s tone quickly becomes revolutionary, and soon Barclay has called for secession to be put on the agenda of town meetings across the state, and Ben and Jerry’s has created a Free Vermont ice cream flavor (made with Vermont milk and maple syrup, of course). Aided by a motley crew of friends and recruits, Barclay’s disruptive hijinks get bigger and crazier (including setting a house on fire) as the authorities close in on him. With a playful and quick-moving plot that belies the seriousness of the book’s environmental and political message, McKibben’s stirring call for recognizing the value and power of smallness in a globalized world makes for a vital and relevant fable.

Starred review from October 1, 2017
McKibben (Oil and Honey, 2013), a nonfiction master with more than a dozen books to his credit, as well as an innovative environmentalist, presents his first novel, a rambunctious satire set in his beloved Vermont. Longtime radio host Vern Barclay, 72, alarmed by global warming's impact on Vermont's legendary winters and irked by the directives of the mega-communications corporation that took over his local station, plots to subtly subvert his broadcast about the opening of a new Walmart. But Perry, Vern's autistic tech-genius assistant with an encyclopedic passion for soul music, gets carried away, and they end up as fugitives from the law. So naturally they launch a protest podcast, Radio Free Vermont, underground, underpowered, and underfoot, which kicks off a surprisingly enthusiastic secessionist movement. Their cohorts include three indomitable women: Sylvia, fire chief and sole proprietor of the School for New Vermonters, a vehicle for hilarious parody; Olympic Goldwinning biathlon star and Iraq War veteran Trance; and Vern's 96-year-old mother. Brewing up a Yankee variation on Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975), McKibben orchestrates wildly imaginative dissent, crazy escapes, risky rescues, and rousing paeans to nature and homegrown democracy. In a time when smart comedy is essential to survival, McKibben's shrewdly uproarious and provocative fable of resistance is exhilarating.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

Starred review from September 15, 2017

Vern Barclay is an accidental radical. A native of Vermont, he has watched his beloved state slowly transform from a small, neighborly, rural culture to one that values big-box stores, stadiums with retractable roofs, and, horror of horrors, big-name cheap beer. Now in his 70s, facing the end of his career on local talk radio, Vern goes into hiding, branded a terrorist after a subversive stunt at a Walmart goes wild. Vern and his friends spread their message of resistance first through his podcast Radio Free Vermont and then through minor acts of pro-Vermont environmentalism and mischief. Resistance begins to reach toward revolution as Vern struggles with the ethics of his decisions and worries if he might be leading his friends to a new utopia or to jail. Set in the immediate future, complete with references to current politics, the plot feels possible, even probable. Vern and his compatriots are engaging and realistic. VERDICT With great care and humor, debut novelist McKibben's (The End of Nature; Oil and Honey) spirited and thought-provoking modern fable will have readers grappling with the ethical questions of how and when resistance is necessary. [See Prepub Alert, 5/7/17.]--Jennifer Beach, Longwood Univ. Lib., Farmville, VA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2017

Leading environmental activist McKibben, who kicked off our understanding of climate change with 1989's The End of Nature, gives his ideas narrative form while representing America's seismic discontent. Host of Radio Free Vermont, 72-year-old Vern Barclay broadcasts a subversive message: Vermont should secede from the United States and operate under a free local economy.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2017

Vern Barclay is an accidental radical. A native of Vermont, he has watched his beloved state slowly transform from a small, neighborly, rural culture to one that values big-box stores, stadiums with retractable roofs, and, horror of horrors, big-name cheap beer. Now in his 70s, facing the end of his career on local talk radio, Vern goes into hiding, branded a terrorist after a subversive stunt at a Walmart goes wild. Vern and his friends spread their message of resistance first through his podcast Radio Free Vermont and then through minor acts of pro-Vermont environmentalism and mischief. Resistance begins to reach toward revolution as Vern struggles with the ethics of his decisions and worries if he might be leading his friends to a new utopia or to jail. Set in the immediate future, complete with references to current politics, the plot feels possible, even probable. Vern and his compatriots are engaging and realistic. VERDICT With great care and humor, debut novelist McKibben's (The End of Nature; Oil and Honey) spirited and thought-provoking modern fable will have readers grappling with the ethical questions of how and when resistance is necessary. [See Prepub Alert, 5/7/17.]--Jennifer Beach, Longwood Univ. Lib., Farmville, VA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.